I cannot independently verify this, and I don't know if it's true. But when I was still a student at my community college in Southern California, a manager at the restaurant I worked at told me that 80 percent of people would steal if they knew they could get away with it. The number itself was never backed up by any scientific evidence, but the sentiment was later substantiated during my time as a support technician for a security camera company. Crimes like theft are less likely to happen when people know they are being watched. It makes you wonder—are people really that despicable? A few American proverbs come to mind when I think about theft back home. If a person was negligent or simply forgot something on a train or in a taxi, the response was "Oh, you can kiss that goodbye." And the thief might mutter "Finders keepers" to themselves as they get away. Is there a culture around stealing in the United States that I was missing all these years...